The Classical Scholarship of Francis Meres

Extract

For a number of years Francis Meres, the glorifier of Shakespeare, has been puffed as a classical scholar. The translated quotations from innumerable classical authors in his Palladis Tamia as well as his references to many recondite poets of antiquity in the celebrated section on poetry have misled many scholars. One of the chief sinners in this respect is the late Sir Sidney Lee, who on at least two occasions called attention to Meres's powers as a classical scholar. Even the able American scholar, Professor C. F. Tucker Brooke, has on one occasion lumped Meres and Gosson together as puritans and classicists. Others who have attributed various epithets to Meres as “careful,” “learned,” “scholar,” “classical critic,” “Professor at Oxford,” and “Professor at Cambridge” are myriad; and one can locate these phrases through the index rerum of many works on Elizabethan literature. There are, indeed, some scholars who have had reasonable doubts; but as yet there has been no definite effort to investigate the matter for the truth. In the course of this paper, I shall point out the sources of Mere's classical allusions, and I trust that the shallowness of his knowledge in this respect will stand as a caveat regarding his evidence in general.